Saturday, September 26, 2009

The second part of the Prague photos was delayed a bit, as I first suffered through a few days of some weird flu-like thing, then got tendonitis (at least I think that's the word in English?) in my left foot. It's not been my week. But now I have chocolate, icecream and appropriate painkillers, plus orders to stay put (in front of the computer) for a few days. So, here are more photos!

Those of you who know me from the Thief community will understand why half of this post is pictures of a cathedral. Mmmm, pretty architectural detail. =)

On the second day in Prague we went to see the Prague Castle, within which lies the St. Vitus Cathedral. Oh yes.

Ohhhhhhhh yes.

I wonder what it would take to have a couple of gargoyles like these constructed above our balcony? Instant über-coolness.

And with that creepy finale, I conclude the series of photos from Prague. I'll have to go back some day, if only to go look inside the cathedral and see the stained glass designed by Mucha. I'd like to get lost among the Old Town's streets again too. My kind of place. =)

Sunday, September 20, 2009

I have returned! After spending a week with fellow fish pathologists at a conference in Prague, Czech Republic, I'm back in good old Finland. Which went and turned all autumny on me while I was gone. Tsk. Fun was had, oh yes, as well as cheap yummy food and drink, but afterwards it was good to come back home to my poor pining husband.

There were a couple of days of sightseeing before the conference started, fortunately. According to the traditions of this blog, all travelling must be documented with much photography, or... else. So without further ado, here's photos! With commentary!

Ah, such pretty scenery. My first day in Prague was mostly spent wandering about the Old Town, seeing for example Charles Bridge here on the right.

Naturally, I had to go see the astronomical clock. I must admit it was smaller than I expected. I didn't see the show this time, but perhaps another time.

I don't really know what this place is, but the pictures made me laugh. Note the little ones below too!

Don't know what this building is either, but it sure looked pretty. At night the little windows in the towers were lit up, very nice.

An alternative way to take in the sights of Prague. Didn't try it though, it looked a little too potentially lethal for me.

This seemed more like my style of sightseeing, but I didn't try it in the end. Maybe next time, if I can convince myself it isn't as uncomfortably bouncy as it looked at times. All those cobbled streets!

While our hotel was nice, getting there could have been easier. Or how would you fancy walking up these steps after travelling all day, with a suitcase? That's what we get for not taking a taxi. We (co-workers and I) did try to look at it from the bright side and figured that at least we'd have buns of steel after this trip, walking up and down these 69 steps a few times every day.

The neighbourhood wasn't the fanciest either. This was the, uh, delightful view from my hotel window. The hotel was surrounded by train tracks on three sides, something we didn't know when booking the rooms. Fortunately I didn't hear much of them up on the 7th floor, so I slept like a rock.

Well, that was the first set of photos. More to come later, mostly cathedrals and other fancy architecture. Stay tuned!